International popstar Ella Eyre went back to her former school to accept an award for her inspirational work in music. Ella attended the prestigious Millfield Prep and Millfield in Somerset on a scholarship from 2005 to 2010, and was voted to receive the award by current Millfield Prep Year 8 pupils.
Before the ceremony, Ella spent time with current Millfield pupils in a Q&A session and attended an assembly, where she gave advice to any future superstars hoping to follow in her footsteps.
At Millfield, Ella trained as a competitive swimmer and cut her teeth as a musical theatre performer in a school production of Bugsy Malone. She went on to study musical theatre at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, and in 2013, she featured on Rudimental’s "Waiting All Night", which peaked at number one on the UK singles chart, becoming Ella's first chart entry and won the 2014 Brit Award for British Single of the Year. Ella’s debut EP, Deeper, was released in 2013 and her debut album, Feline, was released in 2015. Ella won Best Female at the MOBO Awards 2015, and her recent top 10 hits include ‘Just Got Paid’, ‘Answerphone’ and ‘Came Here For Love’, the latter of which achieved Platinum status. Ella has over 750 million streams on Spotify.
In her acceptance speech, Ella said,
“One of the great things about Millfield is that there are so many opportunities to find your next direction, and even though I pushed boundaries during my time at school, that didn’t get in the way of me being able to shine and pursue the things that I was good at. I came to Millfield as a swimmer and found my passion for performing, and I especially want to thank Millfield for giving me a scholarship to attend the school. Without that, my mum would have never been able to afford to send me there, and I would never have had the opportunities that I have had.”
Following the ceremony, Headmaster Gavin Horgan said,
“I am delighted that current and former Millfield pupils are able to look within their own ranks for inspiration and motivation, which exists in bucket loads in this community – this year’s awardees show the ways in which key skills in friendship, teamwork, commitment, leadership, passion and individuality can be found at Millfield, where there is something for everyone.”